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carnivora, the cave lion, cave tiger, hyoena, and cave bear. These animals 

 not only destroyed the ruminants, the remains of which, with those of 

 sucking mammoths, are found in such abundance in the caves, but 

 they dragged them to haunts, where they gave birth to their own young^ 

 and where the remains of the baby hycena are frequently found mingled 

 with those of its aged parent, and with the reUcs of hundreds of 

 their prey. 



"Wherever I have seen these caves I have also seen evidence of oscillation 

 and movements of the surface of the land since the cave epoch. At 

 Banwell cave there is proof of the former existence of an underground 

 rivulet, the flow of which has been actually reversed. I believe that 

 elevation of the carboniferous limestone has taken place since the cave 

 epoch, and that this elevation was the cause of considerable change in the 

 position of the fissures in which the cave animals had their dens. It is in 

 the low level drifts, or their equivalents, that M. Boucher de Peethes, Sir 

 Chaeles Lteli, Mr, Pbestwich, and many other geologists, have found the 

 flint implements which have lately determined the great antiquity of the 

 human race. I have also been informed that Mr. Evans has lately 

 found a well-defined flint implement in Hgh level drift near Bedford. If 

 this case is weU authenticated, it antedates the history of the human race 

 still further in the records of time. 



We find that these drifts on the Avon contain numerous freshwater 

 shells. The most abundant species are djelas amnica, and cornea ; but with 

 these Mr. Steickland found the Unio antiquior and the Cyrena consolrina, 

 which is now extinct in Europe, though living in the Nile. The teeth of 

 the mammoth in these drifts are much water worn, and I suspect have 

 frequently been washed out of the high level drits. There are, however, 

 some splendid remains of this animal at Worcester, which were found in 

 low level drift at Himbleton, and with which the living mammoth was no 

 doubt contemporaneous. These drifts on the Severn have furnished many 

 marine or estuarine shells, to the researches of Mr. Etton, of Eyton, 

 Mr. Jabes Allies, and Mr. Lees; and it appears that an estuarine 

 condition affected the Severn vale at the same time that a freshwater 

 condition was established on the Avon, 



The Lake Epoch. There was a time long antecedent to the days of the 

 Romans when both the Severn and Avon flowed, as the river Shannon 

 does now, through a chain of various sized lakes. 



The racecourses of "Worcester, ITpton, Tewkesbury, and Gloucester, were 

 formerly lakes forty and fifty feet in depth, into which rivers poured 

 their sediment for ages, until the beds of the lakes became gradually silted 

 up and the rivers had to cut their channel through the lacustrine sUt. 

 During the excavations made for the Tewkesbury docks the alluvium of the 



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